She wants a mandarin

[kdogg85]

Went to the lfs today and they had just got 5 mandarins in. Of course, the wife says, (oh they are so cute, let's get one) First thing I think of is, $20 down the drain cuz it won't eat. I have read and read about trying to get them to eat. Are there any tips or tricks to get them to eat, or is it just luck of the draw? And ifseem able to take on the challenge, are they ok to be hypo'd for qt purposes?

 

[Ziggy953]

cyclops is one option. The store I work at feeds cyclops and I've watched the mandarins peck at the floating cubes.

 

[kdogg85]

So it's the same routine as with any fish purchase? Watch it eat and go from there?

 

[Ziggy953]

Mandarins are not subject to ich or many other disease and I personally do not QT them for more than about 24 hours. Try introducing some cyclops to them in QT and see if they eat it. If they do you should be golden.

 

[kdogg85]

Ok cool, try that and mysis shrimp or either? I've heard too many horror stories about them and the ORA's don't seem to be fairing much better.

 

[Ziggy953]

I would try the cyclops first. They are just picky fish but they will eat frozen. I've even seen them eat tiny pellets.

 

[kdogg85]

thanks for the help, I'll have to think it over but that kinda took some of the worry away.

 

[Ziggy953]

My pleasure...they are a tricky fish but can be tamed so to speak.

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

my mandarins favorite food is brine shrimp and blood worms...he will eat the mysis occasionally but doesn't care too much for them. I'd try some brine too if yours doesn't go for the cyclopeeze

 

[Ziggy953]

I did not say cyclopeeze...cyclops. two totally different things. Brine is not healthy for fish, it's like feeding snickers to your kids. Use brine only as a last resort and hope that you can get them to eat something else along with. In other words if you feed brine include cyclops or mysis at the same time to offer other options and hopefully switch them over.

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

well good! another thing to try for the mandarin cause mine loves cyclopeeze as well. I know brine is not good for fish but if he eats it that is a start to eating frozen foods...i think mine started off only eating brine..then blood worms..and now slowly the mysis. The brine may not be too good but it will keep him alive longer therefore more chances of him eating other foods and living

and as ziggy said, if you try the brine, mix it with something else as well...thats how i got mine to eat blood worms since i always feed the two together

 

[SnowZz]

not once in this thread have I heard about its natural diet : pods - anthro and cop. How developed is your tank? Is it a reef, have you considered dosing live pods. They can eat hundreds a day, id say unless you have 100 plus pounds of LR that is very well established I would sway from the manderans. You could start dosing your tank with live copods now and let them start thriving early, but even then I've heard of manderans destroying pod populations. There are thousands of articles on feeding them. Whatever you choose to do good luck

 

[pat8you]

If you train them onto prepaired and frozen foods they can stay in small tanks. It is not always very easy to do though.

 

[melosu58]

The best thing to do is get the LFS to feed the tank and see if they eat at the store. Then you know they will eat.

 

[kdogg85]

My tank is 180g with 260lbs of rock in the dt and another 100 in the sump. I have pods crawling all over the place in the sump. I would defintely have to see one eat before purchase. I went to the coral reef in knoxville, tn today. This is my main lfs to buy from. They had 3 and the girl showed me they were eating mysis and bloodworms. I haven't bought one yet because this is some serious thinkin over to do.


Btw, the tank has been setup since early June, I transferred all my stuff from my 75 and got a hold of cured rock and purchased some more as well.

 

[cmor1701d]

Your tank is ready for a mandarin. Don't worry about feeding it frozen foods. You have a good pod population growing in that size tank with enough LR to allow them to grow.

Just go get one. It will become your favorite fish (when you can actually see it).

I see mine a few times a week when it decides to come to the front and peck at some rocks. Most of the time it's in the rock work, hunting!

 

[kdogg85]

I would rather have one eating regular food just in case I get one that would be an absolute pig and decimate the pod population in no time at all.

 

[thincat]

I would have to agree with cmor and my thoughts are "go get one of those that you saw feeding on blood worms and such. Can't aways find some that are eating anything other then pods. Look for one with a high dorsal fin...that would be the male and they are so much more impressive.